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RR RUEHAST RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHLA RUEHLN RUEHMRE RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR
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DE RUEHAH #0565/01 1571252
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 061252Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8837
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUCNOSC/OSCE POST COLLECTIVE
RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO 0344
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 0366
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 2054
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 0803
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 0851
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASHGABAT 000565 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN (PERRY) 
INFO SCA/PPD (VAN DE VATE/KAMP), IIP/G/NEA-SA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO PREL TX US
SUBJECT: ARI ROLAND QUARTET PLAYS FOR TURKMENISTAN'S PUBLIC AND IN 
SPITE OF GOVERNMENT OBSTRUCTION 
 
REFERENCE: ASHGABAT 466 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (U) Following close on the heels of its previous performing arts 
group Yellow Bird [reftel], post hosted the Ari Roland Jazz Quartet 
April 18-23 in a program that reminded post of the limits of host 
government acceptance of non-Turkmen forms of expression.  In 
contrast to its almost overly warm reception of Yellow Bird, the 
host government initially refused to accept the Ari Roland program 
requested via diplomatic note by post, with the excuse that the 
proposed seminars in local schools would be pointless since there 
are no formal jazz studies in Turkmenistan.  Charge intervened to 
dispute this circular reasoning, winning approval for the program. 
Despite sustained local government obstruction, local audiences 
turned out in spades for the three public performances of a musical 
genre one Ministry of Culture contact told post "Turkmen do not 
understand" and therefore are not interested in.  End Summary. 
 
 
Capital Performance 
------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U) Having convinced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that this 
jazz program was a good gamble, post scrambled to advertise in time 
for the opening night performance on March 19, but need not have 
worried because Ashgabat's Magtymguly Theater was packed.  Older 
patrons of jazz reflected that they had not heard such music live 
for years - for some, since the Soviet era.  But the tide quickly 
turned the next day in Turkmenbashy, where the local authorities 
successfully filibustered a workshop to students of the local music 
school but failed to prevent the public from interacting freely with 
the musicians. 
 
 
Turkmenbashy Tests the Patience of the Mellowest of Musicians 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶3.  (U) Arriving hours early at the Ruhayet Palace of the 
Turkmenistan Oil and Gas Complex, in order to double-check that 
local authorities were aware of the workshop and concert, embassy 
staff were met at the entrance by a triumphant theater 
administrative official, who declared with a smirk, ?it is forbidden 
(to enter).?  The day's first series of calls to the Ministry of 
Culture in Ashgabat and the local governor's office for explanations 
yielded a promise that all would be resolved...eventually.  Still 
forbidden to enter the theater three hours later, the quartet 
interacted with a crowd of early-comers including music teachers and 
their students, some of whom had brought their dutars and gyjaks 
(two and three-stringed wooden instruments).  One bakshi (folk 
singer), a teacher at the school, performed a solo for the assembled 
crowd.  Eventually, the quartet set up their instruments on the 
front steps of the theater and played for the several dozen 
elementary-age music students, their teachers and local jazz 
enthusiasts, at one point jamming with a talented 10-year old gyjak 
player.  At another point the young students pounced as a group, 
pens and paper in hand, on the musicians to get autographs. 
 
¶4.  (U) During the one-and-a-half hour wait for permission, CAO and 
CAA wandered back and forth from outside the theater, where the 
crowd slowly grew, to inside, where the theater administrators 
stubbornly insisted against admitting the musicians.  The host 
government officials used a range of excuses to try to get the 
embassy group to leave the premises, including inventing the story 
that the local newspapers had advertised a different location for 
the event that morning, that the (lavish, new) theater could not 
physically accommodate either the workshop or the evening concert, 
and by insisting that they had no power whatsoever to resolve the 
situation.  Finally the deputy hakim of the city arrived, all 
smiles, to insist that the embassy had failed to procure adequate 
approvals to use the theater.  PAO phoned the Charge, who was in a 
meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs on another topic, to 
inform her of these troubles; and within fifteen minutes the deputy 
hakim permitted the group entry to the theater, his smile replaced 
with a grim fatigue, and then quickly departed. 
 
¶5.  (U) The formal evening performance drew between 500-700 
spectators, filling the center of the 5,000-seat Ruhayet Palace.  At 
one point several young students jumped on the stage for autographs. 
 One middle-aged ethnic Russian man sat beaming in the front row of 
 
ASHGABAT 00000565  002 OF 003 
 
 
the theater with his son.  He later told the CAO that, though he was 
an avid jazz fan, he had not had the chance to see a live jazz 
performance since the 1970s. 
 
LOCALS' EMBARRASSMENT IN ASHGABAT 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) Back in Ashgabat the following day, a planned workshop at 
the National Conservatory was nearly canceled because conservatory 
staff had not received permission from the Ministry of Culture to 
host the group.  As the quartet waited outside, a conservatory 
employee said she was embarrassed at such inhospitality.  (Comment: 
Government employees regularly refuse to discuss a pending program 
with embassy staff because of fear that they will be punished for 
facilitating an unapproved program.  End Comment.)  Moreover, the 
Ministry of Culture had rounded up a large number of the institute's 
students not long before and sent them to attend a seminar of the 
International Ruhnama Conference that was underway at educational 
institutions throughout Ashgabat.  Representatives of state 
television channel TV 4 waited with the group, took interviews with 
the members, and sought information on opportunities for further 
coverage of Ari Roland's program in Ashgabat. 
 
¶7.  (U) After over an hour of waiting, the blockade broke and the 
musicians entered an auditorium that filled up with about 100 
students, teachers and administrators.  The institute director 
heartily welcomed the group and opened the seminar.  Two students 
played with the group on stage and others showed off their skills on 
local instruments after the seminar.  Despite the initial strain of 
the event, and evident nervousness of conservatory staff, a small 
group of interested conservatory students kept the group tied up 
with questions, individual musical demonstrations and group 
photographs well beyond the end time for the seminar.  Interested 
students who asked for more information on jazz learned about the 
Information Resource Center from CAO. 
 
CONNECTING AT THE PUB 
--------------------- 
 
¶8.  (U) That evening the quartet played freely with local jazz-rock 
musicians at the British Pub, a popular hangout and restaurant in 
the center of Ashgabat.  The musicians -- as they had done 
throughout their stay -- struck up conversations with individuals 
and groups at the club.  Saxophonist Chris Byars held a long 
discussion with two ham radio enthusiasts about the challenges to 
free communication posed by an intractable Ministry of 
Communication.  Encouraged by their conversation, they talked 
through possible solutions to communication with the outside world, 
including radio over Internet.  Byars showed the two how to create a 
blog online, and shared his current blog on the program in 
Turkmenistan, at 
http://web.mac.com/chrisbyars/iWeb/Site/Blog/ Blog.html. 
 
DASHOGUZ JIVES WITH NO DIFFICULTY 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (U) On April 21, the quartet and PD FSN traveled to Dashoguz, 
where they spoke with local students at the American Corner, held a 
workshop at the local music school and held a public performance. 
At the Dashoguz City N. Andalyp Music Drama Theater, the quartet 
gave a jazz workshop for 200 students and teachers from Dashoguz's 
music school (students 12-15 years old) and music vocational college 
(students 15-18 years old).  Many of those present, including 
teachers, said this event was their first encounter with American 
musicians and their first live experience of American music.  The 
director of the regional cultural center, who opened the workshop, 
revealed that the school is home to a jazz group of very young 
students, despite the lack of formal instruction in this art form. 
 
 
¶10.  (U) The two-hour workshop gradually turned into a public 
performance, as Dashoguz residents joined the music school students, 
filling the theater beyond its 500-person capacity.  Local musicians 
at times joined the quartet on-stage, and at others took the stage 
for solos.  One well-received piece, Dizzie Gillespie's ?A Night in 
Tunisia,? included a local music teacher and a graduate of the 
National Conservatory, who used to play in a Turkmenistan jazz band 
before he returned to Dashoguz to teach.  A 12 or 13 year-old bass 
player and a 14 year-old saxophone player also had a chance to 
perform with the group. 
 
 
ASHGABAT 00000565  003 OF 003 
 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶11.  (SBU) The members of the Ari Roland Quartet were well briefed 
on Turkmenistan, represented themselves and the United States very 
well, and exercised good judgment in dealing with local obstacles 
and sensitivities.  Their program had a powerful impact on local 
audiences, adding to our efforts to build mutual understanding with 
a local population that is particularly isolated from the rest of 
the world.  The quartet's personal interactions with local 
musicians, students, and audiences also sparked interest in learning 
more about what the rest of the world has to offer.  That is an 
important line of thought for ordinary people of Turkmenistan in a 
period of possible transition. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Post experienced similar bureaucratic obstacles with the 
host government during Jazz Ambassadors programs in previous years. 
As the Ari Roland Quartet program demonstrated, official attitudes 
are far from accurate reflections of the public -- and the public 
continues to reach out for more such contact.  End Comment. 
 
BRUSH